U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (D-VA) joined 30 of their Senate colleagues in writing to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) requesting information on the impact of the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act highlighted in a recent report from the Washington Post and “60 Minutes.”
The senators are working with the agencies to ensure they have the tools they need to fight the addiction epidemic.
“In light of these reports and as Congress evaluates this law taking into account the nation’s addiction epidemic, it is critical that we have all the information necessary to ensure the federal government is doing everything it can to help support our states and local communities in our collective fight against this epidemic,” wrote the Senators in the letter. “We want to ensure the Drug Enforcement Administration and other related agencies have all of the tools necessary to fight this epidemic.”
Current law requires the DEA Administrator to submit a report to Congress identifying any residual issues with diversion efforts, including information on whether coordination between the industry and law enforcement has helped with diversion. This report is past-due and the Senators want HHS and the DEA to provide the information so they can determine how the best action to take to ensure the DEA has the tools it needs to fight the opioid epidemic.
Full text of the letter is available here.
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Chris Graham
